Brief guide to Breckland District Council

Where the money comes from

Breckland District Council obtains the money it spends on services from a number of sources:

Council Tax

The money collected through Council Tax is divided between the organisations and authorities that provide local services such as education, policing, and rubbish collection - this includes:

your county council
your district/ borough council
your police and crime commissioner
your fire authority (if applicable)
your parish or town council

Breckland Council has the lowest District Council Tax in the County.

Government Grants

The Government gives grants to local authorities to subsidise the cost of local services. Allocations to individual councils are intended to allow similar levels of service to be provided throughout the country. However, the levels of funding have reduced over recent years, but a new funding regime was implemented in 2020/21.

Fees and Charges

These are the charges made to customers using council services such as licensing (taxis, tattoo premises, etc.); planning (for permission to build new, and change current, properties etc.); environmental health (inspecting restaurants etc.) etc.

National Non-Domestic Rates (Business Rates)

The Council collects business rates from businesses in the Breckland District. The rate is set nationally, and Breckland District Council has no influence over how much is charged. An element of this funding is retained by Breckland directly and the remainder is passed to Central Government and Norfolk County Council.

Commercial Property

A further area of income is in relation to commercial property. Breckland Council became the Commercial Property Specialist and winner of the 2017 MJ Awards for Commercialism in the Property Estate. The income from our commercial property helps to keep the cost of the Council Tax down.